The Bjarke Ingels Group-designed MÉCA - Maison de l’Économie Créative et de la Culture en Nouvelle-Aquitaine is set to open in Bordeaux, France on June 28th, 2019. The design team, comprising BIG, FREAKS freearchitects, dUCKS scéno, Khephren Ingénierie, VPEAS, ALTO Ingénierie, Vincent Hedont, PBNL, Mryk & Moriceau, and Ph.A won the competition to design the new 12 000 m2 cultural center on the riverfront of Bordeaux in 2012, merging three cultural institutions into one single building.
The new Maison de l’Économie Créative et de la Culture en Aquitaine, MÉCA, located on the historical riverfront of Bordeaux will house three regional visual and performing arts agencies FRAC, the ECLA and the OARA in one single institution. BIG’s proposal arranges the new center for contemporary art, the performing arts institution and the center for literature and movies around a public space open towards the city of Bordeaux and the Garonne River.
The building is conceived as a single loop of public space and cultural institutions. The pavement of the promenade rises to form the roof of the main lobbies, ascends vertically along the stage tower of OARA, bridges across the promenade with the sky lit galleries of the FRAC, and returns vertically to the ground at the archives of the ECLA in order to reunite with the waterfront promenade.
The urban room allows everyday life of Bordeaux to flow through its generous frame along the promenade, injecting the art into the city, and the city life into the building. The multiple ramps and stairs of the building create an institution that is publicly accessible and welcoming on the inside as well as the outside.
The urban room and the informal seating of the stairs will make the MÉCA a lively place and a natural extension of the life along the Quai de Paludate street and the new promenade. During festivals or other special occasions in the city, the outside of the MÉCA can be transformed into a stage for outdoor concerts, theatrical spectacles or art installations.
MÉCA opens on June 28th. For more information on the scheme, see our previous coverage here.
